Tuesday, June 12 – Berlin Man Pleads Guilty

BERLIN- A Berlin man pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. federal court to sexually exploiting a minor to produce child pornography after a complaint filed in Australia about the content of the Internet images led a multi-national effort to track him to Berlin, Md.

According to the plea agreement, on November 8, 2006, Australian Federal Police received a complaint from ANYwebcam.com, alleging a male child was being sexually assaulted on a webcam by an adult male, later identified as Roderick Gene Parks, 42, of Berlin. The investigation revealed that on November 7, 2006, Parks produced and sent by webcam over the Internet live images of himself sexually molesting an 11-year-old boy from his home. The boy was in the custody of Parks, who was watching him after school while his mother worked.

Parks faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years in jail and a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail followed by a lifetime of supervision after his release, Sentencing is set for September. See Friday’s Dispatch for the full story.